SAVINGS: Ipswich's effort to bring street light costs down

SMART connected LED street lighting has already lowered costs to ratepayers and the ability to improve the humble bulb could be endless.

The Ipswich City Council owns about 445 (2 per cent) of the city's 24,500 street lights, with Energex owning the remainder.

Economic Development and Digital City Committee chairman Paul Tully said the Connected City Lighting Program was one of the projects within the Smart City Program.

The program aims to use evolving technology including sensors to improve the operation of street lighting.

"What we have here is the opportunity to take the humble street light and turn it into part of a connected network,” Cr Tully said.

"Other benefits include potential reduction in council's power bill for street lighting through accurate and instant meter readings.

"This will supersede the current unmetered flat rate tariff on street lights which is costing council up to $4 million a year.”

According to the Australian Street Lighting Strategy, street lighting is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from local government.

In Ipswich, street lighting contributes more than 1363 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.

Cr Tully said since February 2017, the council was focused on the acquisition of LED street lights.

"This current project covers an additional 25 street lights in two separate locations with the potential to expand this to three sites,” he said.

"Smart LED street lighting and its associated smart technology is of national importance and demonstrates the council's commitment to energy efficiency and future application of Smart City technologies.”

In December 2015, the council finalised the implementation of a large-scale LED street lighting trial.